The R&A's accommodation partner will let your home for the eleven days of the championship, or find you one. What it pays, what it costs, the licence you need, and the dates that matter.
Last updated 23 September 2026. We will revise this as the scheme publishes further details.
For one week every few years, St Andrews has a housing market like nowhere else in Britain. Around a quarter of a million spectators arrive for The Open in a town of 17,000 people and 3,000 hotel beds, and the difference is made up by private houses: family homes, student flats, cottages in the East Neuk, let for the week to players, officials, broadcasters, corporate parties and ordinary fans who did not get a hotel. In 2022 houses in the centre of town were letting for the price of a small car. In July 2027 the championship returns, and the official route for both sides of that market is already open.
The Open Experiences is the R&A's appointed accommodation provider for the championship. Its property arm does two things: it lets homes on behalf of owners, and it books them for the people who need them. Here is how each side works, in plain terms.
The dates
The let runs from midday on Saturday 10 July 2027 to Tuesday 20 July: eleven days, ten nights, covering the practice days, the four rounds and the day after. That is the block. Owners cannot offer part of it and visitors cannot book part of it; if you want a shorter stay you are in the ordinary market, not this one.
If you own a home in or near St Andrews
You register the property online, and if it is of interest you are offered a viewing slot; accepting the viewing costs £50 plus VAT, non-refundable. Someone from the scheme inspects the house and suggests a rental fee for the week. If you accept, the property is listed to the scheme's clients — players and their teams, officials, media, hospitality guests — and when it is booked the guest pays a 25 per cent deposit, the balance sixty days before arrival, and you are paid thirty days before the championship starts. The scheme takes a commission from the rental fee; it does not publish the percentage on its public pages, so ask before you sign. A security deposit equal to a quarter of the rent is collected from the guest and held by the scheme, and returned within thirty days of the let, less any damage.
There are conditions, and they are the reason to use the official scheme rather than a listings site. The house must be spotless, with a spare set of bedding and two bath and two hand towels per guest. You need a current gas safety certificate and an electrical installation report. You need public liability insurance of at least two million pounds covering the property and the guest. And — this is the one that catches people — you need a short-term let licence from Fife Council, because in Scotland letting a home without one is a criminal offence, not a technicality, and the council is not quick. If you do not already hold a licence, apply now; the process can run to months.
If a guest cancels more than sixty days out, you keep the deposit less the scheme's administration fee. Inside sixty days the guest owes the full amount unless a replacement is found. You, as owner, can only cancel for events beyond your control — fire, death, the roof coming off — and must refund everything.
What it pays
The scheme will not quote figures until it has seen the house, and neither will we. What can be said is that in 2022 four-bedroom houses within walking distance of the Old Course let for five figures for the week, and that a house a player's team can use — quiet, private, parking, a room to eat in, a short walk or drive to the course — is worth considerably more than a flat above a shop on Market Street, however central. Proximity matters less than it does for fans, because the people this scheme serves have cars and drivers. What they want is a house that works.
If you are looking for somewhere to stay
The same platform lets visitors browse and book listed properties, and the Destination Packages sold through the scheme pair a guaranteed ticket with accommodation and transfers. For a group of six or eight who want a house rather than a hotel, it is the most reliable route, because the properties have been inspected and the terms are fixed, and the cancellation rules above protect you as much as the owner. Prices are what they are; there is no cheap way to sleep in St Andrews in Open week. The alternatives are the university halls, which release rooms closer to the time, the wider towns — Cupar, Dundee, Leuchars — with a train or shuttle to the course, and the Open Camping Village on the edge of town.
The dates, in one place
Official let period: midday Saturday 10 July to Tuesday 20 July 2027 (10 nights).
Registration for owners: open now at property.theopenexperiences.com; £50 + VAT to accept a viewing.
Short-term let licence: apply to Fife Council now if you do not hold one.
Guest payment: 25% deposit on booking; balance 60 days before arrival. Owner paid 30 days before the championship.
Championship: practice 11–14 July; rounds 15–18 July 2027.
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